TED NUGENT Says First Amendment Should Apply To Social Media Companies, Rails Against Big Tech 'Censorship'

Ted Nugent has once again railed against large social-media companies that block users from their platforms.

The outspoken conservative rocker is an ardent supporter of former U.S. president Donald Trump who was famously suspended from his social accounts in January 2021 over public safety concerns in the wake of the Capitol riot.

Nugent repeated his unsubstantiated accusations that tech companies are censoring his speech during Wednesday’s (March 9) edition of “The Nightly Nuge”, a news-style clip in which Ted offers his take on the news of our world every night. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We believe that even though high tech is something relatively new and advancing constantly, it’s the new town square. It’s where the First Amendment should exist. It’s where free speech and open communication and dialogue and debate should run free. That’s the new town square in this electronic high-tech media. But not according to those leftists and the Marxists that run Big Tech. Because the thought that my precious sweetheart, almost like Mother Teresa, wife Shemane has been banned from Twitter is certainly a manifestation of a cultural abandonment, a cultural deprivation that Big Tech now represents.

“I had between 25 million and 36 million Facebook reach in 2016, before we got the outsider, the non-politician, the non-status quo guy elected president,” he continued. “But once Donald Trump, who was on the fast track to make things much better for America on every level; every policy that Donald Trump implemented made a better quality of life in the United States Of America, and quite honestly all around the world. We could name all those examples, but people who pay attention know what those examples are. And I went from between 25 million and 36 million Facebook reach within a few weeks of the [2016 presidential] election down to three and a half million Facebook [reach]. And right now on my Facebook, I get on every day and talk about every imaginable subject, because nothing is sacred and the First Amendment covers everything, and if I say something, like promoting hunting or promoting marksmanship or our Ted Nugent Kamp For Kids charity, teaching children safe firearms handling and archery and hunting, fishing, trapping, all of a sudden it goes from hundreds of thousands of reach to a few dozen. They probably have a gang of ‘fact checkers.’ ‘Fact checkers’ are anything but fact checkers. They’re opinionated little dirtbags that crush anything that is uncomfortable to the uncomfortably dumb in Big Tech.

“So, again, we the people, we’ve let this happen,” Ted added. “I hear a lot of squawking around the campfires, a lot of squawking around the water cooler, a lot of squawking at the bowling alley, a lot of squawking at the barbecue, a lot of squawking at church and at school and in the workplace. Don’t squawk. Call your elected employees and tell them that the First Amendment reigns supreme everywhere, including the ‘Zuck world’ of Big Tech and their dishonest, anti-American, anti-fact so-called fact checkers. But if we don’t speak up, this indecency, this dishonesty, this censorship will continue. Let’s raise more hell.”

Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have suspended or removed the accounts of prominent conservatives who have violated their terms of service.

Trump was banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot that he was accused of inciting, adding to claims that conservatives are being unfairly treated. Twitter, along with Facebook and Instagram, pointed to their terms of service, which prohibit inciting violence on their platforms.

Defenders of the technology industry have repeatedly said that private companies cannot be forced to host speech they don’t agree with. They also argue that private owners should be able to do as they please with their own property. In addition, they note that social media companies can only decide what speech they host and present. Those unsatisfied with their choices can choose to read or contribute elsewhere.

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Full Album Stream: Gorged Afterbirth – “Got Gore?”

Gorged Afterbirth bring the slams and the samples on their new album, Got Gore?
The post Full Album Stream: Gorged Afterbirth – “Got Gore?” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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AMON AMARTH's JOHAN HEGG Clarifies His Criticism Of UFC, Says It's 'Fair' To Target Russian Fighters With Sanctions

AMON AMARTH frontman Johan Hegg has clarified his criticism of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), saying that Russian fighters should be banned from completing on upcoming cards in order to put enough pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin and his regime so that he will end his country’s war in Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Hegg took to his Twitter to say that he was boycotting the American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company as long as it was allowing Russian fighters “to compete and make money while children die in Ukraine.”

After a number of people objected to Hegg’s suggestion that Russian athletes must also be punished for their government’s aggression, the 48-year-old Swede returned to his social media to further explain his views while also criticizing Putin for creating “the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history.”

Johan wrote: “I feel I have to clarify my point of view.

“I love watching @ufc , and I have nothing but respect for the skill and dedication of the athletes competing in the octagon.

“What is happening right now in Ukraine is a tragedy. It’s the biggest war we’ve seen in Europe since WWII.

“Two weeks ago Putin made an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. A democratic, sovereign nation. In doing so he caused the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history. 1.5 million people has fled the war so far.

“Putin’s armies are committing war crimes such as shelling residential areas, hospitals and even firing on civilians trying to flee. So far over 30 children have been killed in this war. More than 70 wounded.

“Putin has repeatedly broken cease fire agreements, basically luring people out of their shelters only to hit them with artillery.

“Am I angry and frustrated? Yes.

“This war doesn’t only threaten and affect Ukraine. Putin has threatened to invade Finland and Sweden. He threatens the whole of Europe. Ukraine will not be able to export wheat and other crops during the invasion, which will have consequences for Middle Eastern and African nations that depend heavily on the Black Sea region for food. World Food Programme (WFP) executive director David Beasley has warned that the ‘world cannot afford to let another conflict drive the numbers of hungry people even higher.’ Putin has threatened the world, including the US with Nuclear weapons.

“Is it fair to target Russian fighters/athletes with sanctions? I think it is. It’s not that I want to hurt them personally, but there is no middle ground here. Athletes have influence. If they don’t want to speak up against this war, then why should they escape sanctions when people actually protesting the war in Russia, at the risk of being imprisoned or worse, do not?

“You don’t have to agree with me, I don’t expect everyone to do so, but in my opinion the world has to put enough pressure on Putin and his regime that he will end this war.”

Hegg apparently chose to make his views public after it was announced that UFC’s long-awaited return to the United Kingdom this month would be headlined by up-and-coming British prospect Tom Aspinall and Russian heavyweight contender Alexander Volkov.

Although the Russian fighter has reportedly received the necessary documents to compete in the U.K., the status of his bout against Aspinall remains unknown.

Hegg is an avid fan of combat sports, having previously enlisted ex-UFC champion Josh Barnett and former fighter Shanie Rusth to star in AMON AMARTH’s music video for the song “Mjölner, Hammer Of Thor”.

In a 2019 interview with MMAWeekly.com, Hegg said that it was his wife, Maria, who introduced him to combat sports. “She’s done some boxing in the past and is currently a yoga teacher and has developed a special kind of yoga for athletes,” he explained. “Currently she’s working with a couple of MMA fighters, Örebro Hockey, the local Swedish Hockey League team in our hometown, and a couple of other hockey players in Sweden. A few years back, my wife and I were in New York when I was promoting our previous album, ‘Jomsviking’, and there we met Josh and his girlfriend at the time, Colleen [Schneider], at a dinner. The day after, we met up with them at a gym, and they tried yoga with my wife, and in exchange they offered to train MMA with us the next time we were in L.A. So next time we were there we met up with them and trained, and I had a blast.

“I’ve played hockey and soccer, but honestly this is perhaps the most fun I’ve had training. I was never really into fighting or martial arts before. I mean, I had seen MMA fights and all, but I honestly wasn’t that interested, but training with Josh changed all that, and I’ve been training ever since. Now I follow both UFC and Bellator, as well as watch other organizations like Cage Warriors, if there is an interesting fight.”

Less than a week ago, Hegg denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has called for peace to be restored in Europe. He took to his Twitter to write: “My lyrics are often about glorious battles & brave warriors, but they’re just stories, sometimes based on history. That doesn’t mean I condone war as a matter of solving conflicts. War is never a solution to any dispute. It can only generate more animosity & hate between people.

“Right now Putin has invaded the Ukraine, a democratic, sovereign state, and though this is far from the only weaponised conflict in the world, it has affected me deeply. I thought we as Europeans were passed this, especially considering our troubled past.

“My hope is that Putin will end this attack on Ukraine, & that peace will be restored in Europe. My fear is that even if this happens, it will take a very long time for trust to return between Russia & the rest of the world. I stand with Ukraine & all Russians who oppose this war.”

On February 24, Putin announced a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Putin made the announcement during a televised early morning speech, peddling accusations of Nazi elements within Ukraine to justify the attack on his western neighbor, a move that experts slammed as slanderous and false. (Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost three family members in the Holocaust.)

The Russian leader called for Ukraine’s “demilitarization and denazification” and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.”

I feel I have to clarify my point of view.
I love watching @ufc, and I have nothing but respect for the skill and dedication of the athletes competing in the octagon.
What is happening right now in Ukraine is a tragedy. It’s the biggest war we’ve seen in Europe since WWII.
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

Two weeks ago Putin made an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. A democratic, sovereign nation.
In doing so he caused the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history.
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

1.5 million people has fled the war so far.
Putin’s armies are committing war crimes such as shelling residential areas, hospitals and even firing on civilians trying to flee.
So far over 30 children have been killed in this war. More than 70 wounded.
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

Putin has repeatedly broken cease fire agreements, basically luring people out of their shelters only to hit them with artillery.
Am I angry and frustrated? Yes.
This war doesn’t only threaten and affect Ukraine.
Putin has threatened to invade Finland and Sweden.
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

He threatens the whole of Europe.
Ukraine will not be able to export wheat and other crops during the invasion, which will have consequences for Middle Eastern and African nations that depend heavily on the Black Sea region for food. World Food Programme (WFP) executive…
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

director David Beasley has warned that the “world cannot afford to let another conflict drive the numbers of hungry people even higher.”
Putin has threatened the world, including the US with Nuclear weapons.
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

Is it fair to target Russian fighters/athletes with sanctions? I think it is. It’s not that I want to hurt them personally, but there is no middle ground here. Athletes have influence. If they don’t want to speak up against this war, then why should they escape sanctions…
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

when people actually protesting the war in Russia, at the risk of being imprisoned or worse, do not?
You don’t have to agree with me, I don’t expect everyone to do so, but in my opinion the world has to put enough pressure on Putin and his regime that he will end this war.
— Johan Hegg ?? (@AmonJohan) March 9, 2022

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Skin – HO99O9

It starts with a burst of excoriating, abstract noise. As much as they have been hyped and praised by all kinds of notable people, HO99O9 are clearly not in the business of compromising to make their music more appealing. The first of 12 bewildering but utterly mesmerizing slabs of mutant sonic terrorism, “Nuge Snight” is a massive jolting dose of sound that seems to incorporate noise, hip-hop, industrial and unhinged electronica into one streamlined but eminently unpredictable whole. “Battery Not Included” is even better, as jagged thrash riffs collide with punishing, robot beats and the duo’s psychotic vocal attack. Midway through, a bittersweet, soulful melody emerges from the storm, before morphing into a hateful chug-fest that ends as abruptly as it began. Again, HO99O9 do not sound particularly interested in writing hits, and this is so exciting and against the grain that it sells itself.

“The World, The Flesh, The Devil” is evil, stressed-out trap-core, with dysmorphic voices skimming across thudding, dubbed-out beats, culminating in a bug-eyed, punk rock climax. “Bite My Face”, featuring a demented cameo from Corey Taylor, is what happens when electro goes straight to hell, its rolling pulse and metal-through-the-mincer onslaught bringing the noise and the funk. Everything sounds more focused and streamlined than on the band’s 2017 debut, “United States Of Horror”, but this is an arguably nastier and heavier record than its predecessor. Even the most overtly hip-hop moment on the record, “Slo Bread” (featuring UGK legend Bun B), is texturally dirty as hell and woozy and menacing as a result. Meanwhile, when HO99O9 really lose their minds on the scattershot twitch-up of “Protect My Bitch Pt. 2”, we are so far away from any notion of mainstream music that it’s hard not to rise and applaud.

Not that “Skin” has no accessible moments. “…Speak Of The Devil” is as distorted and ugly as anything else here, but it’s glacial gait and spooky synths bring a certain restrained melancholy to the table. Likewise, “Devil At The Crossroads” is a shuffling, electro-rock detour with one foot firmly on the dance floor. But in every other respect, this is a profoundly fucked up and fiery record. From “Skinhead”, with its glitchy hybrid of punk, rap, sludge and spoken word from polymath poet Saul Williams, to the closing “Dead Or Asleep?” , which switches from filthy trap beats and noirish paranoia to vicious, flailing alt-metal freakout, this is the real antidote to all that polished and sterile, faux-alternative crap that people get so excited about. Audacious and heroically noisy from start to finish, “Skin” will hurt your ears.

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NIGHTWISH's FLOOR JANSEN Announces 'Fire' Solo Single

NIGHTWISH’s Floor Jansen has set “Fire” as the title of her new solo single, to be released on March 25.

Earlier today (Wednesday, March 9), the 41-year-old Dutch-born singer, who made her live debut with NIGHTWISH nearly a decade ago, tweeted out a pre-save link for the track on Spotify and Apple Music, and she wrote: “Like if you’re as excited as me!!”

Less than two months ago, Jansen stated about the musical direction of “Fire”: “It’s a pop song, so it’s not metal, it’s not rock, but it’s definitely me.” Jansen went on to explain that the track will not necessarily be representative of all the new solo music she has been working on in recent months. “I guess it’s more of a mash-up [of styles] actually,” she said, referring to her upcoming collection of solo material, “though it’s not so extreme as in genres, like all of a sudden it becomes… Here’s a metal song and here’s a rock song and this is more poppy… I mean, pop music — the word of it — [it’s short for] popular music, and it kind of describes a lot, and within that it falls. I can only say that it’s not metal and it’s not rock, but it will have its influences and it will have a part of the sound. It can’t even be so that the first song is how everything else will sound like because, yeah, if you know NIGHTWISH and also for us, it’s always so hard to pick just one song that’s gonna be like the kick-off of an album but it can never really represent everything. And I guess it’s the same for this first song that comes on the 25th of March.”

Last summer, Floor said during an appearance on the “Breaking Absolutes With Peter Orullian” podcast that she had been working on a solo album since shortly before the beginning of the pandemic. “And it really kickstarted my own creativity that I haven’t really been able to use over the years,” she said. “It’s nice that it gets out. And I would like to do more of that and actually finish that album and make those steps and find a way to combine a solo career with NIGHTWISH and my life at home, which I even more value after spending so much time here in this green heaven [in Sweden] where I live.”

Jansen discussed the prospect of making a solo album during a 2020 interview with Metal Hammer magazine. At the time, she said: “After 20 years of rock and metal, I think I would like to do something else. I don’t mean stop with NIGHTWISH, but something alongside it.

“I was recently involved in a TV show in my home country in the Netherlands [reality TV show ‘Beste Zangers’, which translates to ‘Best Singers’]. That really inspired me to start writing, and the stuff that has come out is very calm.

“I would love to make an album where less actually is more. Something different — not because I’m bored, but because if you are already in one of the biggest bands in your own genre, and you have someone like Tuomas Holopainen as a songwriter, I don’t really see that I’d be adding anything by making another metal album myself.”

Earlier in 2020, Jansen spoke about a possible musical direction for her solo album during an Instagram Live chat. She said: “I cannot imagine it would be rock or metal — just because rock now I’ve done, and metal I’ve done a lot. And I’m already in one of the best bands, I think, that are out there, in my opinion, to my taste. Plus, if you’re in a band with a songwriter such as Tuomas Holopainen, it’s a little bit hard to come up with something — anything — better, I would say, and I only say that out of love and respect for him. Plus, after 20 years of metal, wouldn’t it be lovely to do something completely different for me? That’s how I feel.”

Jansen performed live with NIGHTWISH for the first time on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington following the abrupt departure of the band’s lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon.

Jansen officially joined NIGHTWISH in 2013 and made her recording debut with the group on 2015’s “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” album.

NIGHTWISH’s ninth studio album, “Human. :II: Nature.” , was released in April 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The effort is a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters on CD 2.

???? – MARCH 25 ???
? https://t.co/iuhjaVD7It
Like if you’re as excited as me!! ? pic.twitter.com/O6gzbNPRlA

— Floor Jansen (@FloorJansen_) March 9, 2022

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Call Down The Sun – KONVENT

Barely two years ago, KONVENT released their debut album, “Puritan Masochism”, and swiftly established themselves as a band with phenomenal potential. Rooted in death / doom but audibly unconstrained by expectation or formula, the Danes’ sound just felt slower and heavier and darker than it had any right to be. Oozing out from cracks in the quartet’s barrage of leaden riff was something weird, wonderful and wildly distinctive, and it’s that refined sense of otherness that makes “Call Down The Sun” an even more startling piece of underground heaviness.

KONVENT really swing. It’s a quality that many extreme metal bands miss, but here it makes all the difference. “Into The Distance” is a ridiculously heavy and disorientating starting point, but this band swing so much that the effect is as blearily psychedelic as it is doom-laden and crushing. As an added bonus, Vocalist Rikke Emilie List has one of the most obscene, animalistic growls available to modern ears: on the grand and grinding “Sand Is King”, she scales the scabrous octaves, lost in deathly reverie and in complete, abyssal symbiosis with her bandmates.

On the epic, blackened squall of “In The Soot”, KONVENT go even further out, embracing dissonance and mesmeric monotone, while still showing evidence of a strong, if skewed connection to the SABBATH-ian mothership. On “Grains” they let the frostbite set in, across six minutes of brittle, blackened pomp with lysergic undertones, while “Fatamorgana” is a shape-shifting dirge with a restless spirit and echoes of blitzed-out acid rock. “Never Rest” and “Pipe Dreams” are equally gripping variations on the same hallucinatory theme, while the closing “Harena” is simply astonishing: a grotesque, deathly psych-doom odyssey that sounds like it’s being belched up from the depths of oblivion in real time.

On the surface, “Call Down The Sun” is merely an excellent death / doom record with a blackened heart and psychoactive properties. But spend enough time with this untamed beast of a record, and it will soon become apparent that there is much genius, even more magic and something else, something deeply sinister and weird, going on here too. KONVENT have it all, and it’s beautiful, terrifying and disgustingly fucking heavy. This band should probably rule the world. Or start a cult. Either way, I’m in.



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BRUCE DICKINSON Says IRON MAIDEN Has No Plans To Retire: 'We'll Probably Drop Dead Onstage'

During an appearance on a recent episode of Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson discussed the band’s longevity as well as the group’s multigenerational appeal. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We’re not planning to retire at all, really. I think we’ll probably drop dead onstage. I can think of worse places to drop dead. But no, we’re not planning on retiring. We’re all still firing away [with] loads of energy and loads of enthusiasm, so I can’t wait to get back together [with the other guys to start rehearsing for the upcoming tour].

“With respect to our fans, we’ve got generations of fans now,” he continued. “Even at [my] spoken-word shows, I can crack jokes about the age of the audience only because half the audience is, like, my age, but the other half of the audience is often way, way younger. So it’s brilliant. We’ve got this whole intergenerational thing going. And, obviously, at the MAIDEN shows, it’s even bigger, the emphasis on that. And huge numbers of women. It’s fantastic. ‘Cause it always used to be cliché, back when I was starting in the early ’80s, that heavy metal was just, like, misogynist, male-dominated stuff… But no, it’s not true. There’s loads and loads of heavy metal fans who are girls.”

In July 2019, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris also told SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that there has been no talk of MAIDEN retiring anytime soon, despite the fact that all the members are in their 60s.

“We all feel that if we feel we’re not cutting it anymore, then we’ll discuss it and that will probably be the end of it,” he explained. “But at the moment, we don’t feel like that. We feel that we definitely still are pulling our weight, so to speak. We’re just doing well. So far so good. I don’t wanna tempt fate, but we are doing good.”

Dickinson joined IRON MAIDEN in 1981, replacing Paul Di’Anno, and made his recording debut with the band on the 1982 album “The Number Of The Beast”. He quit the band in 1993, pursuing several solo projects, and rejoined in 1999.

Dickinson’s two-month North American spoken-word tour kicked off on January 17 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and will run through the end of March.

Bruce will hit the road with IRON MAIDEN for a new North American leg of the band’s “Legacy Of The Beast” tour in September.

MAIDEN’s latest album, “Senjutsu”, was released in September via BMG. The band’s first LP in six years was recorded three years ago in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Harris.

For “Senjutsu” — loosely translated as “tactics and strategy” — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

“Senjutsu” bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band’s early classics like “Powerslave” and “The Number Of The Beast”. Nearly 90 percent of the LP’s 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015’s “The Book Of Souls” and 2010’s “The Final Frontier”, which both peaked at No. 4.

“Senjutsu” was MAIDEN’s 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.

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Rig Rundown: Tinsley Ellis

A blues-rock guitar hero and American music treasure shows us some of the gemstones in his 6-string strongbox, shares an amp with some history, and displays the onboard filter and select stomps he uses to goose his rich tone.Tinsley Ellis broke onto the national blues scene with his early ’80s band, the Heartfixers. By late in the decade, when the Atlanta-based guitarist and singer began releasing albums under his own name, he also became a fixture in the genre’s international club and festival circuit. Over the years he’s earned a reputation for full-throttle live shows and well-crafted albums that hinge on his powerful singing and on his playing, which is based in tradition but packed with signature moves like deft finger slides, the use of open, ringing strings in single-note solos, and bends borrowed from B.B. King but laden with his own emotionalism and rock ‘n’ roll energy.Ellis has been a seemingly tireless road warrior—at least until Covid. But even the pandemic couldn’t slow his songwriting, and he penned more than 200 new titles while in lockdown. You can hear 10 of those tunes, including 6-string bonfires like “Slow Train To Hell,” on his new album Devil May Care—the 20th in his catalog. Back on the road this year, Ellis stopped at Nashville’s 3rd & Lindsley on March 3, where he showed Premier Guitar his rig and told stories of close encounters with B.B. King and other greats after soundcheck and, that night, delivered a sermon on the power and glory of blues. His current run continues until the end of May, and Ellis has just been nominated in the 2022 Blues Music Awards for Blue-Rock Entertainer of the Year.[Brought to you by D’Addario XPND Pedalboard: https://ddar.io/xpnd.rr]Meet the FleetTinsley Ellis favors classic tone flavors, and he gets them through classic guitars. At the 3rd & Lindsley gig, he relied on his 1959 Fender Stratocaster, his mid-’60s Gibson ES-345, a 1930s National resonator, and an ’80s Gibson Moderne. He also travels with a Les Paul and another Strat when the mood or need arises.A Fine ’59Here’s a close-up of that 1959 Strat. It’s been one of his companions for decades. When asked if he’s concerned about traveling with such a superb vintage instrument, he replies: “I own ’em to play ’em.” And indeed he does, eliciting a wide variety of classic single-coil tones from its barking pickups as he dances over its rosewood neck. One snag: the middle single-coil is a replacement, because the original was swiped years ago when he brought the guitar in for a repair. Ouch!Tinsley’s No. 1Dig that Varitone switch—which means this 1967 Gibson is an ES-345. It’s Ellis’ main axe and sounds killer through his double Fender amp setup and under his hands. “I bought this guitar in the ’70s, because I wanted to sound like B.B. King,“ he says. He loves the way the Varitone works as a filter, giving him that B.B. King Live at the Regal tone on demand, and even taking him into Peter Green turf. You can see every road mile on the ES’s beautifully weathered face. This guitar and the Strat are featured throughout the Devil May Care album, along with a Les Paul and several other carefully curated axes.A Unmodded ModerneAlthough Gibson designed the Moderne in 1957, along with the Flying V and Explorer, it was not produced—save for a few prototypes—until 1982. Even then, few were made over just two years, although the guitar returned to Gibson’s catalog in 2012. Ellis keeps his stock Moderne tuned in open D, primarily, for playing slide, and the guitar seems to have an affinity for Elmore James’ material.Where’s Pokey?Note the Moderne’s very un-Gibson-like “Gumby” headstock!Take a Shine to This!This is a 1932 National resonator, with its chrome body decorated by an oasis motif on the front and back. Ellis keeps this little doggie, a recent acquisition, mostly tuned in open G, and when he plays Muddy Waters’ “Can’t Be Satisfied,” laying his bronze slide on its strings, it’s impossible to not be carried back to the days this guitar—and the blues genre—were young.Silver BeachesHere’s the backside of Ellis’ National.A Super Super Reverb and Its Deluxe SidekickEllis is a die-hard Fender amp fan and runs his vintage Super Reverb and reissue Deluxe in parallel to achiever his widescreen tone. This Super Reverb is a little more super than meets the eye. Ellis purchased the 40-watt wonder from Thom Doucette, who played harmonica with the Allman Brothers on the classic 1971 album At Fillmore East. Doucette owned two Supers, he and told Ellis he either played this one or its sibling—he no longer remembered exactly which he’d used—on the nights the album was recorded. Oh, and one more thing: This amp was also used by Stevie Ray Vaughan whenever he sat in with Ellis, who told us he hasn’t changed the settings—volume at 6, treble just past 8, mid at 6, bass at 3, and reverb just past 2—since the first time SRV plugged into it. “When I heard Stevie play though that amp, I thought, ‘Aha, that’s how it’s supposed to be set!’”Basic BurnersEllis keeps his pedalboard simple. There’s a Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner, a Nobles ODR-1 Natural Overdrive, a BBE Soul Vibe rotary speaker emulator—way easier to carry than the Leslie heard on Devil May Care, and a Real McCoy Custom Wah.

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Track Premiere: Guardrails — “Yours Truly”

It’s been a long goddamn while since a hardcore band blasted out of the gate with a sound as feral and kinetic – yet savvily refined in construction – as Guardrails. Hear them now.
The post Track Premiere: Guardrails — “Yours Truly” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

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ERIC KRETZ On Next STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Album: 'My Guess Is It's Probably Gonna Be The Hardest Record We've Ever Had'

In a new interview with Australia’s May The Rock Be With You, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS drummer Eric Kretz was asked if he and his bandmates have had any discussions about using the coronavirus downtime to work on new material. The 55-year-old musician responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yeah, there was at first, but then it kind of goes into, ‘Do you guys wanna do a record?’ And we’re so disappointed that we finished the ‘Perdida’ record [STP’s first-ever acoustic album] and then we weren’t able to tour it. And I think in some ways, it was actually very therapeutic just to take a break — just take a break. The whole world is hurting right now, and it’s just, like, ‘Let’s just hang out with our families.’ We all have kids around the same age, so let’s just really enjoy them growing up and deal with the hardship of just the constant lockdowns and the stresses that were going along with COVID. So I’m sure what’s gonna happen is now, after a couple of years break, I know Dean [DeLeo, guitar] worked on a record, TRIP THE WITCH, and Robert [DeLeo, bass] has been working on a really cool solo record. So everybody’s just kind of doing their own thing. And what you’re gonna find out now is I bet right when this [upcoming Australian] tour is done, it’s gonna be, like, ‘Let’s start a new record. Let’s do this [and] keep going.’ And then, as we’re lining up tours for the States and for Europe for the rest of the year, I think it’s just gonna be, like, ‘Let’s keep jumping in the studio.'”

Regarding whether “Perdida” is indicative of STP’s future direction or if that album was just a “one-off experimental thing,” Eric said: “It was just experimental. I’m sure you know from our catalog, we’ve always had a song or maybe two that were similar to that. And it was just, ‘Let’s just do a whole record like that.’ And the majority of it we wrote here at my place where I have a studio. We just sat around the couch with a couple of acoustics and some hand drums and just kind of arranged the songs and put the lyrics together and just kind of got it all together. And then recording was sometimes it’d be a few of us together, sometimes it’d be one person at a time or two people at a time, and just kind of developing the layers. And Robert and Dean really had some great ideas with expanding what they wanted to do with the harmonies and melodies and continued to use instruments that we haven’t touched on before. So in that sense it was a different avenue for us to take.

“I would say the next record — my guess is it’s probably gonna be the hardest and loudest record we’ve ever had, just to say, ‘Okay, we’ve done that. Now let’s do this and let’s try something different,'” he added. “Or it could be totally a mixture of the two. We kind of don’t know until we get there. In a few more months, like I said, we’ll probably be itching to record again.”

In November, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS scrapped the remaining shows on their tour — including an appearance at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Florida — after a “member” of the band’s “organization” tested positive for COVID-19.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS features three original members — the DeLeo brothers and Kretz.

Singer Jeff Gutt, a 45-year-old Michigan native who spent time in the early-2000s nu-metal act DRY CELL, among other bands, and was a contestant on “The X Factor”, joined STONE TEMPLE PILOTS after beating out roughly 15,000 hopefuls during an extended search that began more than a year earlier.

Original STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Scott Weiland, who reunited with the group in 2010 after an eight-year hiatus but was dismissed in 2013, died in December 2015 of a drug overdose.

Chester Bennington, who joined STP in early 2013, departed nearly three years later to spend more time with his main band LINKIN PARK. Bennington committed suicide in July 2017.

“Perdida” was Gutt’s second LP with STP. His recording debut with the group was on its self-titled seventh album, which arrived in March 2018.

Later this week, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS will embark on the “Under The Southern Stars” tour of Australia with CHEAP TRICK, BUSH, ROSE TATTOO, ELECTRIC MARY and BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB.

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